1. Field of the Invention
This invention is in the field of envelopes, and more particularly is directed to special purpose envelopes specifically adapted for use in PC postage.
2. Description of the Related Art
The United States Postal Service (USPS) has responded to recent technological developments in the telecommunication and computer field by developing its Information Based Indicia Program (IBIP.) The IBIP involves the development of new technology to produce new forms of postage. In so-called PC Postage, a user can purchase postage credit, and print the postage in the form of PC Postage onto a label or directly onto the mail piece. The PC Postage includes a human readable portion and a 2-dimensional barcode portion. The human readable portion includes the postage value, mail class, the date, and optionally a logo. The barcode portion is intended to help thwart fraud, and includes information about the mail piece including the destination ZIP code, the amount of postage applied, the date and time the postage was applied, and a digital signature so that the USPS can validate the authenticity of the postage.
In one preferred embodiment of PC Postage, a user will subscribe to a third party Internet postage provider, such as Stamps.com (of Santa Monica, Calif.), and by using postage software made available by the Internet postage provider, postage value can be downloaded to the user""s computer. The user can then print the postage indicia, by an ordinary laser or ink jet printer, directly onto the mail piece itself (e.g. onto business envelopes), onto a label to be applied to the mail piece, or alternately on an insert that can be placed into window envelope and show through a window envelope. This postage software preferably works in conjunction with other software programs, such as word processing, accounting, database, and contact management software to allow a user to conveniently print out PC Postage at the same time that addressee and bar code information is printed (and in the case of envelope printing also the sender""s return address.)
In order to permit the sophisticated mail handling and optical reading equipment at the USPS to properly interpret the PC Postage and addressee information, it is critical that the postage indicia be presented in a relatively precise location on a mailpiece. Indeed, the USPS has established strict guidelines directed to the margins, label sizes, and placement of the Postage Indicia, and the size, placement, and other characteristics of the POSTNET (POStal Numeric Encoding Technique) bar codes, and any facing identification mark (FIM) on mail pieces. These guidelines are contained in the Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) and Title 39, Code of Federal Register (CFR), Part 111, and USPS Publication No. 25 xe2x80x9cDesigning Letter Mailxe2x80x9d.
A facing identification mark (FIM) is a pattern of vertical bars printed in the upper right area of a mail piece, to the left of the indicia space for a stamp, metering or PC postage. A FIM pattern is essentially a nine-bit code consisting of bars and no-bar place holders (in which the bars corresponding to a binary 1 and no bars correspond to a binary 0.) FIM patterns serves two major purposes. They allow mailpieces that do not contain luminescent stamps or meter imprints (such as business reply mail and official government mail) to be faced (oriented) and canceled (postmarked) by USPS machinery. FIM patterns also permit business reply mail and courtesy reply mail to be separated from other letters and cards for direct processing by optical character readers (OCRs) or barcode sorters (BCSs). This helps in achieving faster processing times.
Under USPS regulations, there are strict regulations concerning the size and placement of the FIM pattern. The FIM pattern must be printed in a FIM clear zone, in which no other printing must appear. Under present USPS regulations, the FIM clear zone is a rectangular sized zone extending from downwardly 1.59 cm (0.625 inch) from the upper edge of the mail piece and is located between 7.62 cm (3 inches) and 4.45 cm (1.750 inches) from the right side edge. The FIM bars must be 1.58 cmxc2x10.32 cm (0.625 inchxc2x10.125 inch) high and 0.079 cmxc2x10.020 cm (0.03125 inchxc2x10.008 inch) wide. The rightmost bar of the FIM must be 5.08 cmxc2x10.32 cm (2 inchesxc2x10.125 inch) from the right edge of the mail piece. The tops of the FIM bars must be no lower than 0.32 cm (0.125 inch) from the top of mail piece and the bottoms of the FIM bars should touch the bottom edge of the FIM clear zone but must not be more than 0.32 cm (0.125 inch) above or below that edge.
Currently, the USPS requires Internet postage customers to use envelopes that have a FIM mark or fluorescent stripes in order to easily determine the location of the indicium. This requirement creates problems for Internet postage providers who want to support window envelopes. For example, if an Internet postage provider wants to support window envelopes that have a plastic window on the top right hand corner of the envelope, then a rectangular or round window cannot be used for this purpose because it will cover the FIM mark and its FIM clear zone.
Others have attempted to develop solutions to overcome this problem. For example, the E-Stamp Corporation, of San Mateo, Calif. has a window envelop design, as shown in FIG. 1, (Prior Art.)
There are several shortcomings with E-Stamp window envelope design, including:
1. Since the E-Stamp envelope, sized at about 9.53 cmxc3x9722.07 cm (3.75 inchesxc3x978.6875 inches), is smaller than a normal size 9 business envelope 9.85 cmxc3x9722.56 cm (3.88 inchesxc3x978.88 inches), a consumer must fold standard U.S. letter sized sheets 21.59 cmxc3x9727.94 cm (8.5 inchesxc3x9711 inches) papers exactly in thirds in order to fit the sheets into the E-stamp envelopes.
2. If the front page of the insert with the postage indicium has ink showing through and into the FIM clear zone, then the USPS will reject the mailpiece because Internet postage vendors are required to provide a system that is automation compatible. To be automation compatible, the system must leave the FIM clear zone free of ink.
3. Due to the small size of the E-Stamp envelope, a limited number of sheets (only one or two) will fit into the E-Stamp window envelopes. Attempts to insert more than two sheets causes difficulty.
Currently, under all of the USPS programs including the IBIP program, there is a maximum 5% skew requirement. This maximum skew requirement is intended to ensure that inserts are skewed less than 5% from the horizontal axis of the envelope to ensure that the indicium is properly displayed through the indicium window. See FIG. 2 (prior art.) Folding sheets into thirds can also introduce skew if the corners of the sheet being folded are not properly lined up. Although there are problems associated with the E-Stamp indicium-window envelopes, the noted E-Stamp design does comply with the 5% skew requirement imposed under the USPS since its undersized envelope is in compliance with the 5% skew requirement. The current size of the E-Stamp indicium-window envelope is 9.53 cmxc3x9722.07 cm (3.75 inchesxc3x978.6875 inches). This envelope is smaller than the standard size 10 envelope and smaller than the standard size 9 envelope. A standard size 10 envelope has an outer size of 10.48 cmxc3x9724.13 cm (4.125 inchesxc3x979.5 inches) and is very important for indicium window designs because size 10 envelopes are the most widely used envelopes by business users. By sizing its envelope to have the smaller size than an size 9 envelope, E-Stamp forces users to fold inserts into almost perfect thirds. This creates problems for the small business users who may not have paper-folding machines and who are therefore relegated to manually fold the inserts. Manually folding leaves much room for human errors, with the result that if the inserts are not folded into almost perfect thirds, users will not be able to put the inserts in the envelope properly.
There accordingly remains a need for window envelopes that are easily used with Internet postage, does not create skewing problems, allows a reasonable number of sheets to be placed therein, and which does not require extremely precise folding of inserts.
The inventor has designed a number of fluorescent stripe window envelopes that effectively solve the FIM clear zone and skewing problems identified above.
In the inventor""s design, the FIM mark is entirely eliminated from the envelopes, and instead fluorescent stripes are printed on the top right hand corner and top of the right side edge. Users can thus gain additional flexibility in folding the insert such that the indicium is properly displayed through the plastic window that is located at the top right hand corner. This design completely solves the FIM clear zone problem, and users need not be concerned about the inserts shifting in the envelope and risk having the mail piece being rejected by the USPS. The fluorescent stripe on the top right hand corner assists automated processing equipment to detect the location of the indicium showing through the window.
Moreover, while any number of non-standard size envelopes can be developed, standard size 9 and 10 envelopes can be quite readily used, thereby saving the end user from having to have specially sized envelopes.